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We welcome your thoughts and ideas about both this website and about the Save Radio New Zealand campaign in general.
Contact the webmaster:
Alison Green - alison@webweaver.co.nz
Alternatively, please feel free to leave a comment below:

Thanks very much Paul! We knew it wasn’t good netiquette to link to a great big file like that on someone else’s server, so thanks heaps for giving us permission to do so. We’ve changed the link on the KPMG report page accordingly.

hi there
wonderful to see this site up and running. If I may I would recommend that two descriptions of RNZ (not including the direct quote from One News) be amended. We need to accurately name the four sides of Radio New Zealand, and present a united front against a predictable strategy of divide and conquer:

[currently] “how much Radio New Zealand National and Concert FM mean to us”

[becomes] “how much Radio New Zealand – National, Concert, International and Archives – means to us”

[currently] “this taonga that is Radio New Zealand National and Concert FM.”

hi all. Sign up to Soundwaves – it’s Radio New Zealand’s new eNewsletter. I’m told it has html bells and whistles, and birdcalls even…? Let’s all check it out [http://www.radionz.co.nz/media/newsletter], sign up and then get on with the Saving Of!

Although changes to Radio New Zealand may affect, more closely, older people around New Zealand they may have greater difficulty travelling to the big protest events. Will buses be available? Is it possible for each person to take a picture on a stick to count someone who could not make it and the numbers counted? Is there a list of disaffected people growing somewhere on a website?

Is there a small town timetable for protests or advice for starting our own?

Greypower has huge lobbying power and perhaps could put their profile to a good cause by advertising this on their website.

Sensible sentencing, Rotary, Probis, U3A, to name a few; are there any letters being sent to these groups?

I like the ‘About’ piece at the bottom. Every New Zealander stands to lose something precious if this government gets its way.

A young uni student told me she studies music and uses the Concert programme for assignments. They were holding a protest at the university about losing the service. Are the universities being contacted, here as well as internationally for their support?

What about Kiwi expats who happily went off overseas thinking they’d be coming back to the same NZ they left, democracy intact?

Radio New Zealand carries our democracy on its shoulders. Thank you for your huge effort.

This speech given by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s managing director Mark Scott to the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Conference in Johannesburg is a great read,
and extremely relevant to the current predicament faced by Radio New Zealand. It picks apart the arguments put up by struggling corporate providers saying that public broadcasters should move off their turf.

Thanks for your question. There’s a bold red link on the sign the e-petition page entitled “sign the e-petition”. Clicking this link takes you to http://www.issues.co.nz/handsoff/Home where you can sign the e-petition. Hope that helps. Thanks heaps for your support of RadioNZ.

here’s a download link to the 2008/09 financial review of Radio New Zealand. It clearly outlines the bind that RNZ is in – salaries lagging ten percent or more behind private sector equivalents – the mandate to maintain broadcasting quality versus political pressure to save, or even generate, money – the non-commercial… ethos yet to be enshrined in the “proposed new charter contained in the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill”. It also clearly outlines the Green Party and Labour Party view that “an independent and impartial news and current affairs service is a crucial part of any democracy, a powerful check on corporate as well as governmental power.”

here’s a download link to the 2008/09 financial review of Radio New Zealand. It clearly outlines the bind that RNZ is in – salaries lagging ten percent or more behind private sector equivalents – the mandate to maintain broadcasting quality versus political pressure to save, or even generate, money – the non-commercial ethos yet to be enshrined in the “proposed new charter contained in the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill”. It also clearly outlines the Green Party and Labour Party view that “an independent and impartial news and current affairs service is a crucial part of any democracy, a powerful check on corporate as well as governmental power.”

A couple of thoughts/suggestions: The link to filling in the petition should be much more clearly defined; I nearly gave up looking for it. And signing the petition should not automatically lead to being “alerted to” (by email) various kinds of updates and releases – this should be optional as a matter if course.

Personally, I don’t give a damn about the Concert Programme. As much as I love music of (almost) all kinds, I see no real need for a publicly funded radio station providing a particular style of music in these days when inexpensive (or free, for most library subscribers) recordings of such music are available to any of us who care.

In contrast, I do care very much about the National Programme. The kinds of in-depth, intelligent investigation, discussion and analysis to be heard there are simply not available anywhere else, at any price. Commercialisation, pretty much by definition, equates with “dumbing-down” (as we have increasingly seen with pretty much all other media in recent decades). I have barely attempted to watch TV “news” in many years, and I am increasingly despairing of our newspapers.

The National government is attempted to portray this as an economic issue; it’s not. This is a constitutional issue (or it would be if we had one) in that it addresses the core issue of a “free” (as in, unencumbered by political OR COMMERCIAL constraints) press. This, to me, is the heart of the issue.

Hi to all supporters of Radio New Zealand. Great work – raising the profile,value and support of Radio New Zealand.
I have to say I do give a damn about Concert Radio – in reply to Simon Williams. Concert Radio is my sanctuary. My refuge. I will defend it’s existence. It is absolutely important for my sanity. I get sick of so much bad news and continual chat and advertising on various radio and tv stations. I need commercial-free, chat-free music to restore my sanity. Yes, I could listen to C.D.s. But I’m on a benefit and C.D.s are expensive. Also Concert Radio extends my listening repertoire. It is important there is a station preserving classical music for many listeners. Classical music can be a source of music where feelings are important. It is reassuring to know others – composers, players – understand such feelings, when feelings are often denied by people who are perhaps less receptive to the value of feelings.
So, to those who haven’t already done so, I encourage you to write to Members of Parliament supporting the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill for Concert and National Radio to be “commercial-free,” and supporting the valuable principles in the Charter for Radio New Zealand. Bendon Burns sent me a copy of this Amendment Bill. Probably available from Jonathan Coleman too. Sophie Glendorran

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We are ordinary Kiwis standing up for something we believe in. We vote left, right, or somewhere in the middle. We are the farmer or fisherman keeping track of the rural economy (and the weather), the city lawyer or business owner following the ins and outs of political decision-making, the young parent at home with the kids or the pensioner home alone – listening to a friendly voice from the outside world. We are expats and homebodies, young and old and in between – and we share a common belief.

We believe that our public broadcaster is precious and valuable, a taonga that belongs to all of us, and in which we trust. We want to protect and nurture it, and keep it safe from commercial interests. It matters to us.